Cost of Discipleship - Bonhoeffer Self-denial

Chapter 4- Discipleship and the Cross (continued)

Bonhoeffer-' "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself."  The disciple must say to himself the same words Peter said of Christ when he denied him:  "I know not this man."

My Thoughts- We MUST say to ourselves we know NOT ourselves.  SELF-DENIAL.

Bonhoeffer-'Self- denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism. It is  not suicide, for there is an element of self-will even in that. To deny oneself is to be aware ONLY of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self-denial can say is: "He leads the way, keep close to him." '

My Thoughts-

We want to believe that if we give up a cherished sin that we are denying ourselves fully.  We actually believe that giving up of THINGS is all there is to it. That if we are to live the life of Christ we will live it without sinning. But truthfully, we have to know deep down if no where else that as long as we hold ourselves in ANY esteem we aren't denying ourselves fully. We look at our own likes, desires, wants, thoughts, beliefs, standards, opinions, feelings, we note all these things as if they are ours by some birth right. We are ENTITLED to these self originating things, simply because we have them, simply because we exist.  We feel this way because we are caught up in the WORLD revolving around us! We are the center of our own universe. We believe this! To us this is truth!  We are much too arrogant to believe that there is so much more than our personal existence. We put OURSELVES into our children,  wanting them to carry on our existence with them after we are gone. We are full of SELF. So to say that self-denial is the mere denial of a few things we desire in our lives, is far from the reality of true self-denial. 

Bonhoeffer says -To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self.

This is TRUTH.

All the apostles after Christ's death and resurrection lived this. Their entire existence was focused on Christ and doing His will- living to bring others to His truth. None of them became rich, none of them filled their homes with treasures, none of them lived to meet their own selfish desires. Why do we imagine we are supposed to do what they didn't do?  Why do we believe that because we aren't called to be preachers, evangelists, teachers, and such, but to lead simple lives that we have some right to surround ourselves with comforts and treasures?  Satan has done his job so incredibly well!  He's got us believing that so much just doesn't matter as long as we mouth the words but don't live them, we're fine. We can live as we please to suit our wants and desires, because surely God would not want us to live otherwise.   Satan has us focused on ourselves and he wants to keep our minds on ourselves, no where else.

How aware of Christ are we, really?

Is He in all we do?

Is God our life?

Have we regulated our Savior to a few thoughts a day?

So many have done just that and they believe it's perfectly fine. 

Where are their thoughts the rest of the day?

Where else, but on themselves and those in their lives.

Do we live for Christ?

Are we TRUE disciples of Christ's?  

We have to ask ourselves these questions because not to ask them is to cover our eyes, to blind ourselves from truth.  Remember, God allows those who would be blinded to be blinded, He'll blind them if that is what they truly desire.  He forces NO ONE to the truth. 

Please LORD we would know ONLY YOU and YOUR TRUTH!

Let us buy of you EYE SALVE so that we may SEE all You would have us see!